Beauty Without the Beast
by russetfurbr
Summary: AU. How would be life if Vincent never had became Beast. One Shot.


**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction made for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way.**

**Beauty Without the Beast **

"_I hate white,"_ Catherine Marks thought, somehow amused with the situation's irony while her eyes inspected the immaculate whiteness of the room's ceiling.

She did hate white. Since she could remember, she pursued happiness, trying to fill everybody's life with color, laugh and warmth. That lovely trace of her personality had been intensified after the day her family was communicated of her mother's death.

Vanessa Chandler was a scientist recruited by the Army to help in Afghanistan war, which she accepted gladly, telling Cat it was a honor; she would help keeping her country, her family and her compatriots safe.

Six months later a guy in a military uniform – Cat knew he had a high rank, but she didn't care; he would always be just some guy for her – was seating at the family's living room telling them with the most outrageous neutral tone that Vanessa had been shot in the crossed fire, dying instantly.

With a depressed fifteen year old baby sister and a father that cried silently at night to not disturb his daughters to take care of, the teenager made her life's mission to surround her family with light and color, her desperate attempt to move on with their lives.

She asked her dad to paint the house in bright colors the week after her mother's burial, shocking everyone with her audacious choice of yellow, green and red.

Although unusual, the new colors did make the house seem less morbid. The rest they put together with time, but the colors remained as her lifeline. Even her bridal dress wasn't entirely white; she made sure of having a beautiful floral pattern adorning it just so she could have her beloved colors.

Therefore, it was kind of ironic that the first thing she saw waking up to the rest of her miserable life was a white ceiling. It kind of condensed all the failures of her existence knowing that, even when she tried her hardest to run away from it, white – or nothingness, depending on the way one would look at it – seemed to be her fate. Happiness was just a concept made up by novel's authors to sale books. It was unreachable and unreal. It simply didn't exist and she learned it from the worst way possible.

A doctor in white coat – as if there wasn't enough white in that place – entered the room saying, "Oh, Mrs. Marks, you're awake, good! How are you feeling?"

"_Like my life is over," _she thought.

"My throat is dry," the woman responded, feeling her throat burning.

"Yes, that happens. I'm going to ask the nurses to bring you some water. I'm Dr. Mason, by the way. Do you remember what happened?" the doctor, a bald man in his sixties, questioned in a professional tone.

"Car crash. I crossed a red line, totally my fault. Did something happen to the other driver?" Cat responded, suddenly alarmed with the possibility of having hurt other people in the middle of her crisis.

"Besides being extremely anxious and regretful, Mr. Owens, the other driver, is fine. Just a few scratches. You, on the other hand, broke three ribs, which will be painful to heal, but nothing more serious happened. I want to keep you here tonight for observation, but if everything goes well, you can go home tomorrow morning. Sounds good?" Dr. Mason said, sounding cheerful, like when people are trying to will children to do things.

"Okay," she answered, not really interested; she didn't have a home to return anymore, anyway.

The doctor checked her vitals and left without another word. A few minutes later, Heather and her dad entered the room, their worried faces piercing Cat's heart even more, which only made her angrier. To see the obvious path of tears in both of their cheeks was unbearable. As if her family hadn't already suffered enough. She felt the irrational urge to rip his throat apart.

"Cat, what happened?" Heather asked in a quiet whisper.

"Evan is cheating on me," she replied, averting her eyes to the stupid white ceiling because admitting that to them was too much.

"That son of a bitch! I'm going to kill him," her dad yelled, startling her.

"Dad, please, I need you to calm down, okay? It's not worthy," the injured woman yelled back, afraid that her dad really chase after him, doing something stupid.

"Don't tell me to calm down, little lady. That pig did nothing to help you when you needed him and now this? Somebody has to teach him a lesson," the older man replied, looking positively dangerous.

"And what good that will bring, dad? You go after him, do something that you'll regret later and Evan poses as the victim. Go home, dad. Brooke needs you. The baby inside her belly needs you," she commanded firmly.

"You're my baby, too," he murmured, his shoulders falling down in defeat.

"I know, dad. That's why I need you to be there for me. I need you to take care of Brooke and the baby, to be with me and Heather. You can't leave me alone to take care of them," she explained, trying to make him see what was really important. Her dad hesitated visibly and she took advantage of it, saying, "It's not worthy, dad. As soon as I get out of here, I´m going to file for divorce, I promise. Now go home, please. I'll be fine."

Her dad look at Heather for support, but she agreed with Cat. They needed him. They already lost their mother and she wouldn't risk to loose her father, too.

"Cat's right, dad. I'll stay with her. You come back tomorrow to pick us up, okay?" her sister pleaded.

He shook his head in disbelief, recognizing that he was outnumbered, "What else can I do?"

Kissing both of them, Catherine's father left. Heather took a chair and seated by her side, trying her hardest to not jump on her sister, demanding explanation. She didn't need that at the moment. Cat needed to talk, though, so she told her sister all about how she found Evan and a co-worker, Tess Vargas, in their bed very much naked. Even if they tried to deny the affair, there wasn't enough room to argue with that vision.

Her boss was taking easy on her due her miscarriage, therefore, she just had to prepare a report on a divorce case and she was free for the day. Cat tried to explain that she preferred stay and work, that working took her out of that dark corner in her mind where she kept hearing the doctor saying that her precious little baby wasn't alive anymore, but her boss didn't bought it. It was a little past 2 pm when she went home, caught her husband in bed with another woman and ran straight to her car, her vision blurred with tears. The rest was history.

By the time she ended her tale, Heather didn't know who she hated more. Evan, for being such a playboy coward, that despicable Tess girl, for being a slut, or herself, for having encouraged Cat to date her worthless husband in first place. When she voiced her guilt to her injured sister, Cat dismissed it, saying that she was the one to blame; she knew he wasn't reliable.

The female lawyer had met him during a trial. She was fresh starting in the law firm, barely had passed the order. The case was simple, a fraternity boy accused of murder. Evan Marks was the forensic that proved her client's guilt. She lost the case, but won a boyfriend.

At first, she didn't want anything to do with him, despite his undeniable charm and handsomeness; he was a player and everybody knew it. Word was that he had a three months rule. The last thing she needed was to be another face on his conquest's wall. He kept chasing after her, though, and after a while, they became friends.

Spending time with him was pleasant enough; he was funny, smart and gentle. Cat started to think that, maybe, he was just another lost guy, trying to hide his true self under a shallow surface. And he looked always so sincere when he said that he was truly in love with her. It didn't take too long for her to give in. Six months of dating, another six of engagement and they were married.

At first, everything was all right; they were getting along perfectly. Then, she got pregnant and something started to go really wrong. Everybody always say that a child is the celebration of a marriage, but Catherine didn't feel that way. She loved the little creature developing inside of her belly already, but every time she pictured him/her, she just couldn't imagine Evan's face reflected on the baby. It was like she didn't want him/her to be his.

Which made her question if she was really in love with her husband. The marriage happened so fast that she hadn't really thought about that. It didn't help that Evan was pulling himself away from her little by little, although he denied it firmly, teasing her about being paranoid due the hormones.

Eight weeks into the pregnancy, she had a massive bleeding and lost the baby. Only her mother's lost could be compared with that pain. She cried for days, blaming herself for causing the miscarriage unconsciously due her doubts over the baby's father. To add fuel to her depression her husband was never around. He said that Cat was overreacting, that they could have as many kids as they wanted because it was only one isolate case, but she felt abandoned, like he didn't really care for the baby in first place.

It was only a matter of time for her start suspecting he was having an affair. Apparently, he hadn't give up his short time rule and she was past due. She wasn't that surprise; she already had been questioning herself if the real reason of Evan's passion wasn't just the challenge of winning her. What she couldn't stand was catching him rolling on the sheets with some whore in the sanctity of their bed. It was something so dirty, so unforgivable that she felt her heart squeezing with pain.

Heather said that she should stop thinking about those things and sleep. She would help her put her life back together starting the next day, like a team, which sounded really comforting. It took her a while to relax and fall asleep, but eventually, the day's stress, along with the painkillers she was given, won and she blacked out.

Something disturbed her medicine induced sleep and she opened her eyes, feeling them heavy and kind of glassy. She regretted waking up, though, because Evan was standing next to the chair here Heather was sleeping.

"Cat..." he started to say, but her anger erupted uncontrollably.

"What are you doing here? You have no right to be here, your idiot! You... you stupid peace of useless shit! Why are you here? Don't you have some fucking whore to fuck?" she yelled on the top of her lungs.

Heather woke up startled, her head turning between both of them, not knowing what to do.

"You're my wife!" he yelled back, furious.

"Not for long, you can bet on it! Get the Hell out of here!" Cat shouted again, out of control.

"Let me explain!" Evan pleaded, but his tone was demanding, arrogant.

And that infuriated Heather, too.

"You have nothing to explain! You have no right to be here!" Cat's sister replied, feeling the blood on her veins boiling.

"You shut up! This is not your business!" he hissed.

"Maybe it's not her business, but someone disturbing the patients is mine," a young, dark haired doctor said from the door, surprising Cat.

She had been so furious with the sight of Evan that she didn't notice him entering the room. The unknown doctor quickly approached them, positioning himself between Evan and Cat´s bed, his back to her, in a protective position.

"Now, I don't know what's going on here, but this is a hospital and, obviously, you're not welcome in this room. So, I'll let you choose if you're going to leave on your own accord or if I'll be forced to call security," the stranger said in a powerful, commanding tone.

He was tall and massive. Although his back was to her, Cat could see the serious expression on his face. His whole being demanded respect.

"Why? You can take me on your own?" Evan asked challengingly, trying to mask the fact that the doctor was being very effective at intimidating him.

"Oh, I can! But I'm a doctor, I have to watch my hands' hygiene," he responded sarcastically. "If you allow me, I´m going to escort you to the door."

Evan had no choice, but to head out of the room, followed closely by the doctor. Before leaving the room, the dark haired man said over his shoulder, "I'm going to ask Dr. Mason to check on you, Mrs. Marks."

Dr. Vincent Keller heard Mrs. Marks thanking him timidly before leaving her room. Her husband headed to the elevators without looking back, disappearing behind its doors. Vincent was a doctor, a healer, and nothing pleased him more than helping people, but that man had the capacity of bringing to surface the worst of him. Luckily for all of them, the douche was only capable of harassing defenseless women.

He couldn't understand how a guy could do something like that.

The nurses liked to talk and the gossip of the day was about poor, gorgeous and unfortunate Mrs. Marks. She caught her husband in bed with another woman just two weeks after having a miscarriage and crashed her car because of that.

Almost died because of some idiot. That was just wrong.

Someone tapped his left shoulder and he turned around to see his older brother, Mike. It surprised him; they were only supposed to get together the next day when he and his brothers were going to watch the game.

"Hey, baby brother," Mike said to his utter annoyance.

Vincent hated when his brothers called him that way and they always made sure to do it, just to piss him off.

"Okay, I work here. Can you just try and make me look respectable?" the doctor asked.

"Sorry, buddy, no, can't do," Mike answered in a mocking tone.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Vincent questioned and suddenly realized that they were in the hospital. "You okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, fine. I just wanted to talk to you," his brother replied, looking uncomfortable.

"Mike, what is it? Is it Brian?" Vincent was starting to get worried.

His second brother had a good soul, but he had that stupid trouble magnet on him. It seemed that wherever Brian was, something bad happened. Of course, there was a time Vincent thanked God every day for his brother's clumsiness. If he hadn't broke his leg in the subway on their way to work that day eleven years ago, his older brothers could had been killed in the Towers.

"Vinnie, is nothing with any of us, okay? Look, can we go some place private? I really need to talk to you," the older man said, abandoning all the pretense of a casual visit.

"Hum... yeah, follow me," the young doctor stated, entering a room near Catherine's. "Just be quick. This room won't be vacant for long."

"Vinnie, I love you. You know that, right?" Mike started enigmatically.

"I can't believe you made all the way up here to prank me, Mike! This is my workplace, man. Come on!" Vincent complained, exasperated; sometimes Mike just didn't act like an adult.

"Vinnie, I'm serious," and he was; Mike didn't use that tone unless he was dead serious. "I need to know that you're positive I would never do anything to hurt you."

"Okay, I know," the younger man responded, registering his brother's urgency.

"Laura asked me to marry her. She said that she'll break up with you the minute I accept her," he said in a single hurried breath.

"What?" Vincent yelled shocked.

"It's true, man. She said that she only used you to get to me and that, now that you two are engaged, she's done waiting for me to make a move. But, I swear to you, man, I never touched that woman. I honestly don't know how she got the idea that I was interested on her," his brother explained, his tone full of sincerity.

And, honestly, Vincent didn't have any reason to not believe him. Michael Keller Jr. was well known for not lying. He was the star of his family, always surrounded by the prettiest girls, always good in sports and stuff. All the brothers shared the same bulk complexion and handsome features, but Mike had a plus, with his blue eyes, inherited from their mother, and a light attitude that drawn people to him like flies to sugar. Add his well-payed lawyer job to the mix and no one stood a chance next to him.

Vincent didn't say anything else, just took his phone out of his pocket, pressing Laura's number. It took a while, but she picked it up.

"Hello," her voice sounded on his ear.

"Did you ask my brother to marry you?" he asked abruptly.

"Vincent?" Laura asked, sounding confuse.

"Did you ask my brother to marry you?" he repeated angrily.

"I... I... Look, Vincent, this isn't the way I wanted you to find out," Laura whispered.

"Yeah, that makes everything so much better, Laura, thanks for your consideration. I'll leave the hospital at 8 pm. I expect you to be out of my house by the time I get there," he said simply, hanging out.

"Vinnie, man..." Mike started to say, but Vincent cut him off.

"I don't wanna talk about this, Mike, not right now. I need to go back to work," the doctor murmured, his voice sounding defeat.

"Yes, of course. I´ll pick you up at the end of the day with Brian, okay?" his brother offered, pity obvious in his tone.

"Can you guys wait until tomorrow? I think I want to be alone tonight. Figure things out," he asked in a whisper.

"Whatever you want, baby brother. I really do love you, you know?" Mike reassured again, simply because he didn't know what else to say.

"I know, Mike. I love you, too," Vincent said, heading out of the room.

He didn't really know how he could stand the rest of the day, though he was thankful for the hard work's distraction, because his mind was in turmoil. He spent a lot of time in the bathroom, trying to reign the constant threat of throwing up all his lunch. When he arrived home at night, a dreadful feeling made his stomach hurt; he was afraid to find Laura there.

As much as he hated his former fiancée at that moment, he was taught to never hit a girl, treat woman with respect and he feared the anger that was threatening to rip its way out of his chest. He just didn't want to have that kind of confrontation. To his great relieve, she wasn't there. But, she hadn't left either because her clothes were still hanging on the wardrobe, which probably meant that she wasn't ready to accept they were over, although it didn't make any sense, since she was the one that tried to get out of the relationship in the first place.

The house was quiet and somehow uninviting, maybe reflecting his internal misery. Despite telling Mike that he wanted to be alone, Vincent took his phone out of his pocket at least three times with the full intention of calling JT, only to put it back again.

What would he say to him, anyway? That he found out his fiancée, the one that repeatedly complained about his best friend and his girlfriend, Sarah, annoyed at "how pretentious both were" and treating them no very nicely when they were together, the one that pushed their friendship limits to the point where JT simply pulled himself away from his life, was intending to cheat on him with his own brother so he dumped her and now they could be friends again?

Yeah, that would say how much he appreciated the guy.

So, he spent his night alone, thinking about what to do with the rest of his life. Sleeping had been impossible. The only thing good of a sleepless night was that the next day he already had a plan.

He had been contacted by a hospital in Washington a few weeks back with a good job offer, but he declined due his marriage's plans. There was no reason to refuse such a great opportunity anymore. By the time his brothers came to have breakfast with him, he already had emailed the hospital's director, asking if the offer still stand.

That morning, at the same time Catherine Marks was leaving the hospital, Vincent Keller was communicating his decision to leave to his boss, saying that he would stop showing up immediately since he had to arrange his new life in another state. He fully planned to be out of town for the rest of the week, giving Laura time to retrieve her things from his house without having to see her face.

That night while Catherine Chandler – there was no way she would use Evan's name anymore – looked up at the moon, seating alone at the stairs on the fire escape, allowing the relief of tears run freely down her cheeks and for some unknown reason, seeing a flash of the doctor's face that kicked Evan out of her room, Vincent Keller hoped in his truck, leaving New York to never come back, for some inexplicable reason, picturing the beautiful and sad face of the poor woman with the useless husband he helped the day before.

Both sharing one conviction: the absolute certainty only adults have that happiness and true love only existed in fairy tales.

**A/N: Vincent telling Cat that he would make the decision of becoming Beast again if it meant to be in her life was the most romantic thing ever. Which got me thinking how would be their lives without one another. **

**So, I figured if his brothers hadn't died in the Towers, he wouldn't join the Army, therefore, he wouldn't become a super soldier and saved Vanessa from that creepy Muirfield guy and she wouldn't die in front of Cat, transforming her in that smart detective that discovered his secret. **

**I know it's a bit depressing, but that's life without fairy tales. Hope you like it. **

**For those that ship Evan, I don't really hate him, but he's a player and I hate this type of guy, that's why he's the villain. Plus, he's trying to get in the middle of Vincent and Cat and that's something I just can't stand. **

**And Tess will have an affair with her boss, a married man, in the show, so...**

**Just so you have a look on the bridal dress I pictured for Cat, take a look on the site wedding-splendor - spring-wedding-dresses. Any of the two dresses on this page would be perfect. **


End file.
